“The
best things in life are slow”Slow Food Devon comes to the 5th Exeter Festival of South West England
Food and Drink

Peter Greig of Piper's Farm and Simone Brogi of Slow
Food Valdera, Tuscany at work together

Exeter,
Devon April 10-13, 2008 “The best things in
life are slow,” enthused Peter Greig of Piper’s
Farm,
while handing out samples of his own farmed and produced Red Ruby
beef, cooked in a wood-fired
oven at the Slow
Food Devon Tent at
the Exeter
Festival of South West England Food and Drink. “Our
naturally fed Red Ruby beef takes a full four years to reach maturity,
and this long, slow growth results in a finely grained meat that
is both tender and full of flavour. Here, come and have a taste!”

Piper's Farm Red Ruby beef, straight out
of the wood-fired oven

Meanwhile,
alongside Peter, Simone Brogi, from Valdera, Tuscany, was tirelessly
pulling out the finest, most delicious focaccia, cooked in the
ferociously hot wood oven, thin and crackly, sprinkled with a bit
of sea salt, some fragrant Tuscan rosmarino, a drizzle
of new season extra virgin olive oil. The cooking time for this typical
Tuscan flatbread may only have been minutes, but the excellence
of the finished product was the result of a traditional dough,
made by Simone’s wife Michela, that benefited from two separate
slow rises over a period of hours. The best things in life
are slow indeed!

This focaccia has pears that have been macerated in Sambuca!
Squisito.

As
a double act, Peter and Simone could not have provided a greater
contrast: Peter, tall, thin, quintessentially English, with necktie
embroidered with Piper’s
Farm, tirelessly talking, cooking, sharing; Simone, powerfully
built, equally tireless, frowning into the intense heat of the
oven, looking for all the world like some underworld blacksmith
at Vulcan’s
forge. To begin with, Peter spoke not a word of Italian, nor Simone
a word of English; after three days, they were communicating amongst
themselves brilliantly. “Buono,
buono,” said Peter, carving off some of his deliciously
succulent and flavourful meat and putting the slices onto Simone’s
focaccia. “Very good,” said Simone, taking a deep slug
of Red Rock beer to accompany a sliver or two
of Piper’s
Farm home-cured and –smoked
back bacon, sliced off the slab, uncooked, to enjoy raw, just
so, as if it were a slice of air-cured Tuscan pancetta.

The
rapport, the banter, the teamwork, the learning and sharing of
new tastes and cultures between Peter and Simone epitomized the
spirit throughout the Slow
Food Devon Tent.

This
same spirit of learning, sharing and tasting was evident on the
other Slow Food stands, too. Somerset’s
finest artisan cheddar producers worked together to demonstrate
what makes our greatest cheese, when traditionally produced by
age-old methods and using unpasteurised milk, so special and unique.
Keens, Westcombe and Montgomerie cheddars all have their own unique
character and personality, and visitors were able to learn to taste,
distinguish and enjoy. Emma Parkin, of Emma's
Breads, had earlier given a children's taste workshop on 'Slow
Dough' in the Food is Fun Marquee, and throughout the weekend offered
tastings of her artisan breads, proved in the time honoured way,
slowly, using the previous days' dough as a starter. Man (and woman)
does not live by bread
alone, so for those thirsty to learn, as well as just to drink, there
were deliciously quenching beers from the small micro-brewery Red
Rock, produced using the farm's own spring water (no
water miles), malt from Tuckers Maltings (about 2 miles from the
brewery), whole hops from Malvern and fresh yeast from a famous Dorset
brewery. Nothing added and nothing taken away.

The Red Rock team

Tuscans
Simone, Michela, Antonella and Giuseppe, all members of Slow
Food Valdera, had come over especially for the Exeter Festival of South
West England Food and Drink at the invitation of Freddie Dudbridge,
leader of Slow Food Devon.

Slow Food Valdera comes to Exeter

On
the Thursday before the Festival, they attended the Exeter
Festival Conference, whose theme this year was ‘Raising the Game’.
At this Taste
of the West sponsored event, I gave a presentation about Tuscany,
the Tuscan experience, and the similarities between our two regions,
and how we can learn from as well as benefit from building relationships. Michael Caines expanded
this theme and reaffirmed his commitment to finding a way for Tuscany
and South West England to cement this relationship through some
form of official twinning, an initiative that is also strongly
supported by John Sheaves at Taste of the West.

This
year’s Exeter Festival of South West England Food and
Drink was definitely the best ever. The Castle Courtyard, where the
celebrity chef demonstrations led and hosted by Michael took place,
became a central area in its own right, a place to relax, enjoy a
drink or a bite to eat. (The highlight here was definitely Geoff’s
newly released, sensational Pebblebed
Brut Sparkling rosé accompanied
by a half dozen Bigbury
Bay oysters!) The Festival After Dark on
Friday, with live music, cookery demonstrations (including the surprise
guest appearance of James Nathan, MasterChef
2008 winner together with Michael) and of course the
ever popular beer tent, was all great fun, too.

Michael
with James Nathan, MasterChef 2008, in the Cookery Theatre

In
the main Festival area, the Food and Drink Pavilions offered more
producers than ever before, demonstrating once again what an outstanding
range of exciting, local and regional food and drink our region
has to offer, and proving Michael’s
assertion, “The
South West has the best larder in Europe”.

Undoubtedly
for me (and of course I am unashamedly biased), the Slow Food Devon
tent was the best place to be over the three days of the Festival.
Located in its own, spacious and separate tent, and with Peter’s
wood-fired oven as a considerable attraction in is own right, here,
unlike the other food pavilions where the emphasis was very much
on selling, the Slow Food tent offered a relaxing and convivial
atmosphere in the true Slow Food spirit. Though hugely popular
and packed out during all the three days of the Festival, here
the emphasis was somehow less frenetic, primarily about sharing,
tasting, learning, enjoying (neither Peter nor the Tuscans were
actually selling anything - is that one reason why their corner
of the tent was so relentelessly popular?!).

Slow Food Devon tent

Liz
puts the kettle on while Simone and Michela keep a close eye
on the oven

Congratulations
especially to Fred, and to Jo and other Slow Food Devon members who
worked so hard to create such a brilliant celebration of food
that is good, clean and fair, enjoyed amongst like-minded people
from various backgrounds and even countries who together
all share common values and ideals.

I
will never forget the magnificent flavour of Peter’s
succulent meat, the juices dripping into that exquisite, freshly
baked Tuscan focaccia, and drizzled with a bit of that precious liquid
gold, olio extra vergine d’oliva della Valdera, so
deliciously melting, such a perfect marriage of West Country and
Tuscan flavours and food cultures: in its very essence, the taste
of friendship.